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Whether you’re downsizing, upgrading, moving into a dorm or just want more space without sacrificing audio quality, a floorstanding speaker and subwoofer combo is always a good idea.
Tower speakers take up significantly less space compared to a sound bar or traditional stereo speaker set, while taking full advantage of vertical space, easily sliding into tight spots next to your TV or in-between bookshelves. Not only are they powerful, filling up even big rooms with full sound, these floorstanding speakers make your media center stand out, creating a clean and grandiose looking (and sounding) setup.
To get the full spectrum of sound from your TV show, movie or music, you’ll want to look for a floorstanding speaker set with a subwoofer. As a general rule in any stereo, the subwoofers handle the lower end of the sound spectrum, where instruments like bass would be, while mid-range drivers and tweeters handle the high end of things. In most other stereo sets, a separate subwoofer unit is needed to not only feel the booming bass, but to take the workload off the tweeters so they can focus on producing the highs. But a floorstanding unit will usually contain the subwoofer as well as the tweeters and any mid-range producing speakers, all within one frame, meaning that the set of two towers (or sometimes even just one) are enough to experience deep, thunderous bass along with balanced mids and shimmering highs.
Besides bass, a horn on the tweeter can affect the speaker’s dynamic range and efficiency compared to a dome, which helps aim the sound at you rather than bouncing it off walls or the ceiling. Horns are usually coated in a material like compressed rubber, for removing sharpness from the outgoing sound and giving it a more natural, detailed feel.
Wattage can vary, but these are generally pretty powerful speakers, and usually blast out a range of about 100-150w — more than enough for a living room, studio apartment or den.
And for the real bassheads looking to shake the room, a separate subwoofer can still be added (and is included in some sets), but for the average user it might be a little overwhelming.
Below are four of our favorite floorstanding speaker units to start building your home audio setup from the ground up.
